Modest, Confident Capital. Review on Brussels

Brussels is a modest, confident capital that many visitors find to be an acquired taste. The city is built along a pentagon of boulevards known as the Petit Ring. At its heart is the Grand Place, arguably Europe's most beautiful central square. Within 20-minute walk is much of the city's accommodation, most of it easily accessible by tram, bus or metro.

Around the Grand Place are a number of museums, architectural gems and oddities. To the south, behold the famous Manneken Pis, the statue of a boy taking a leak on a street corner. To the north, Tintin fans should not go past the Comic Strip Centre in an Art Nouveau building designed by Horta. To the east, near the Royal Palace, the Ancient Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum complement each other brilliantly.

Once in Brussels, a visit to the ATOMIUM is a must; everyone must have seen this. It is an exceptional construction and ingenious architecture for the symbol of the European capital. An ultra-fast elevator (5m/sec) brings you to the top in no time. At 100m height, you can enjoy the unique view over Brussels. A walk through the pipes and balls of the structure brings you into the world of Belgian strip heroes in the exhibition “The Atomium in comic strips”.

After a drop-in here, you can effortlessly walk into MINI-EUROPE located at the foot of the Atomium. When you’re in here, you are visiting a park of outstanding quality: all the models are built down to the finest detail to a scale of 1:25. Stroll amid the typical ambience of the most beautiful town of the old Continent - chimes of Big Ben, gondolas and mandolins, eruption of Vesuvius, the fall of Berlin wall, bull-fighting and many more… In total, 300 models and sites in a quite unequalled craftsmanship.

The other major attractions at the foot of the Atomium include The Village, Kinepolis and Oceade. The bars, cafes, taverns, restaurants, snack bars and fast-food outlets, which surround the Village, offer many Belgian and foreign specialities. In addition, the Village is the venue for numerous events and activities that are organised throughout the year. Kinepolis, a complex with over 7000 seats, houses 24 ultramodern cinema halls and an IMAX theatre: a giant screen with the height of a 7-storey building which takes you off into a new dimension. Oceade is a vast sub-tropical complex which offers, throughout the year, the pleasures of bathing in luxurious verdant surroundings, thrills and spills on 140m toboggan slides relaxation in jacuzzis, saunas and Turkish baths.